Married For Assets Not For Love Chapter 1

After realizing I was nothing but a disposable background character in someone else’s grand romance, I pivoted. I became the female lead's absolute best friend, and when she inevitably left the country, I gladly took her brooding, wealthy, hopelessly devoted runner-up of a suitor off her hands, ensuring she and her bad-boy soulmate could ride off into the sunset.

But ten years later, she returned. She announced her newly single status to the world, and in our long-dormant college alumni group chat, she dropped two simple texts.

[I’m back. Let’s all get together soon.]

[@Colin, you’ll be there, won’t you?]

The group chat instantly exploded.

Everyone remembered Vanessa. She was the radiant, untouchable IT girl of our graduating class. The fact that she had walked away from Colin—the brilliant, ice-cold valedictorian who had spent four years worshipping the ground she walked on—was a tragedy our classmates still gossiped about.

I looked down at Colin sleeping soundly beside me. I raised a single eyebrow.

I felt a little tragic about it too. After all, his assets weren't entirely in my name yet.

* * *

[Colin has to go, right? The man waited ten years for Vanessa. That’s some Gatsby-level devotion!]

[Seriously! The guy hasn't even been spotted with another woman. He’s the ultimate romantic.]

[I could obsess over this dynamic forever. It’s too good.]

I stared at the screen as the notifications rolled in, my fingers unconsciously tightening around my phone. My gaze drifted back to Colin.

He slept so peacefully. His breathing was steady, the sharp, handsome lines of his profile softened by the amber glow of the nightstand lamp.

Fifteen years.

It had been exactly fifteen years since my senior year of high school, when I had that sudden, shattering epiphany. I realized I was living in a world where I was a nameless extra, a girl destined to fade into the wallpaper of Vanessa’s spectacular life.

The moment I got to college, the first thing I did was orchestrate a way into her orbit.

Vanessa. The dazzling protagonist of our universe.

Relying on my uncanny intuition of how "her story" was supposed to go, I appeared exactly when she needed someone. I said the exact words she craved when she was crying. Seamlessly, inevitably, I became her absolute best friend.

Everyone used to say, Claire, you’re so lucky to be in Vanessa’s inner circle.

Only I knew the truth. I was just basking in her main-character aura, using her blinding light to carve out a slightly easier path for my own life.

For four years, I shadowed Vanessa to every exclusive party and elite networking event. That was how I met everyone in her world. Including Colin.

He came from old money. He had a razor-sharp intellect. But his eyes only ever saw Vanessa.

Until graduation year, when Vanessa chose Tristan, the notoriously wealthy, rebellious trust-fund kid, and moved to Europe with him.

Before she left, she took my hands in hers. Her smile was as blinding as ever.

"Claire," she said, "Colin is a truly good man. You two should be together. I’d feel so much better knowing you're with him."

I looked at her radiant face, knowing the truth better than anyone.

Colin only loved her. And I knew that according to the invisible script of our lives, ten years from now, Vanessa would return, and Colin would scoop up our child and run straight back into her arms.

But so what?

Colin’s family pedigree, his Ivy League credentials, his relentless capability—these were stepping stones a girl from a blue-collar background like me could never reach on my own.

Marrying him meant I could climb. I could access a higher echelon of society, build my own wealth, and secure my future.

As for love?

I never expected it. I never even asked for it.

So when Vanessa played matchmaker, I accepted Colin’s proposal without a second thought.

At the time, I was as cold and calculating as a corporate merger. I had mapped out every single step. I would use Colin’s resources to launch my own startup. I would build my capital. And when Vanessa finally came back and Colin inevitably cheated, I would file for a very public, very lucrative divorce, take half of everything, and walk away a queen.

But I had calculated everything except the treacherous, softening nature of the human heart over time.

By our third year of marriage, my company was taking off, largely due to the quiet, subtle ways Colin funneled industry contacts my way.

By our fifth year, our son, Noah, was born. Colin was the one clumsily learning to change diapers. He was the one waking up at 3:00 AM to warm bottles. He memorized my coffee order, remembered I hated cilantro, and always knew to keep a heating pad ready when my cramps were bad.

By our eighth year, when my company faced a brutal financial crisis, he liquidated his own personal portfolios without a word to pull me back from the brink.

Ten years.

Everyone told me, Claire, you married a saint.

And God help me, I almost fooled myself into believing it. I almost believed that living like this forever wouldn't be so bad.

But now, Vanessa was back.

The plot was finally snapping back into place.

Watching the alumni chat light up, the last, pathetic remnants of my hesitation were ruthlessly crushed by my own logic.

Fine. I would give him one last chance.

If he chose me, if he chose this family, I would pretend none of this ever happened and we would carry on.

But if he chose Vanessa...

Then it was time to execute the exit strategy.